


I Know You

by AriadneKurosaki



Series: IchiRuki Month 2020 [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Byakuya grudgingly stans it, F/M, Fluff, IchiRuki Month
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25642222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriadneKurosaki/pseuds/AriadneKurosaki
Summary: Ichigo makes a mistake and finds himself cast in a musical.
Relationships: Kuchiki Rukia/Kurosaki Ichigo
Series: IchiRuki Month 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858906
Comments: 13
Kudos: 44





	I Know You

**Author's Note:**

> This uses key phrases, and sometimes paraphrases, from Disney’s 1959 film Sleeping Beauty, which also does not belong to me. Also, this is fluff and silliness and should not be taken too seriously.
> 
> Prompt: Day 1, Once Upon a Dream

Ichigo does not expect the Shinigami Women’s Association to know very much about the World of the Living. This is his first mistake. After he regains his powers following the Winter War, the SWA decides that the population of the Seireitei needs something to boost morale. They settle on the idea of putting on a show.

Ichigo’s second mistake is spending some time in Soul Society following the return of his powers. He needs to train after being without his powers for seventeen months and get used to his new blade in bankai. That is how he gets caught up in the SWA’s plans. It’s Rukia who convinces him that the play will be highbrow, like “one of his Shakespeare plays”. Ichigo’s third mistake is believing that Rukia knows what counts as highbrow in the World of the Living.

 _Sleeping Beauty_ is not exactly what he had in mind. But Rukia has agreed to be part of the show, so Ichigo feels bad backing out. He reconsiders when Ise Nanao informs him that the show is a _musical_ – they will be adapting music from the old World of the Living movie. Still, Ichigo agrees to audition, figuring he’ll be cast as a background actor or not at all.

So, it’s to his shock (and absolutely no one else’s) when Ichigo arrives at the rehearsal space the SWA is using and the final casting list announces that he has been cast as Prince Phillip, playing opposite Rukia as Princess Aurora. “Isn’t Aurora blonde?” he asks, which earns him a kick in the shin.

“I’ll wear a wig, idiot,” Rukia says. She starts in surprise when Ichigo’s hand touches the ever-stubborn lock of hair between her eyes.

“If you have to, I guess. I like your hair.”

Nanao calls her cast to attention before Rukia can come up with a reply. The rest of the casting is equally…interesting. Momo, Kiyone, and Isane are cast as the faeries, while Rangiku is cast as Maleficent. Rounding out the cast are Byakuya as a reluctant King Stefan (Ichigo suspects that the SWA is blackmailing him into it somehow), Nanao as Queen Leah, and Shunsui as King Hubert. Tōshirō, to his chagrin, is cast as an _owl_ , while a number of other Shinigami are assigned to roles as birds and forest creatures. Hanatarō is assigned the role of a squirrel, and Shūhei just laughs when he’s assigned the role of Maleficent’s bird, Diablo.

Nanao promises Ichigo a real horse as Phillip’s steed, which doesn’t reassure him at all: he’s never ridden a horse. Still, Rukia looks so excited that Ichigo gamely picks up his script and begins to read.

* * *

They rehearse for three weeks. Ichigo won’t let anyone hear him sing for the first two, but he recites his lines and hides his laughter behind his script whenever the three faeries flutter around Rukia and squabble with one another. It’s especially funny to watch since they’re supposed to be faeries but all three are taller than she is. Tōshirō really does his owl role justice. Byakuya just barely puts up with Shunsui, who wants to rehearse the Kings’ drinking scene far more than necessary.

One week out from the performance, Nanao shoves costumes at everyone and Rukia is wearing the prettiest ‘peasant’ dress she’s ever seen: a dove-gray dress with a boned black bodice that laces up the back and makes her look positively busty. Ichigo can’t stop looking at her. He’s been forced into black medieval hose and an auburn-hued tunic that brings out his eyes.

Nanao announces that they will be completing a full run-through of the performance and before long Ichigo finds himself watching Rukia from behind fake “trees” with a wooden stand-in for the horse next to him. Rukia is singing and dancing with Tōshirō-the-owl, and her voice is sweet enough that Ichigo doesn’t have to act when he smiles as Prince Phillip. Nanao has to hiss his cue at him and he sweeps onto the stage, effortlessly replacing Tōshirō and adding his tenor voice to Rukia’s.

She startles and escapes from his grasp but Ichigo’s hand gently pulls her back in. “I’m sorry,” he says gently, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Rukia looks up at him and says breathily, “It’s not that, it’s just that you’re a – a—”

“A stranger? But don’t you remember? We’ve met before,” Ichigo tells her, and for just a second he is back on the hill with Rukia looking at him as though he _is_ a stranger, her shihakusho replaced by a kimono and Sode no Shirayuki nowhere to be found.

“We…have?” It’s as though Rukia can tell where Ichigo’s thoughts have led him, because instead of pulling away as the script calls for, she steps closer, gray skirt swishing around her legs.

“You said it – once upon a dream.” Then Ichigo is singing again, telling her, “ _I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream._ ” He spins her into a dance that sends them swirling across the stage, one arm around her waist while his other hand holds hers. As the Shinigami playing forest creatures continue the song in a chorus, Ichigo just smiles down at her.

His expression is so tender it takes Rukia’s breath away, and she whispers, “Ichigo?”

Ichigo dips her. That’s not in the script either, but Nanao doesn’t tell them to stop and so he twirls her underneath his arm once more. As the chorus begins to die down, Ichigo leans in and whispers, “I told you that we’ve met before.” Then, because he can’t help himself, he leans down and kisses her. It’s light, almost chaste at first, before Rukia throws her arms around him and pulls him closer.

The room is dead silent. Nanao’s mouth has dropped open a little. Rangiku’s eyes are enormous in her head and shining brightly while her horned headdress tilts drunkenly off the side of her head. Shunsui is hugging Nanao, and Tōshirō looks vaguely constipated.

Ichigo and Rukia notice the silence, finally, and lift their heads.

Byakuya looks – impressed, despite himself. Ichigo fully expects the other man to chase him from the makeshift theater with his deadly cherry blossom petals, but Rukia’s brother just says, calmly, “I did not realize you could sing, Kurosaki Ichigo.”

Ichigo looks down at Rukia again. She is smiling so brightly that he thinks she looks like the moon and he realizes what Byakuya isn’t saying. “I didn’t think I could, until recently.”

As Nanao finally ushers them off stage, Ichigo’s hand squeezes Rukia’s.

A week later, Ichigo rides a horse, kisses Rukia awake in front of several hundred Shinigami (plus Isshin, who lets out a truly _embarrassing_ whoop), and the cast take their final bows. His arms are around her as applause fills the room.


End file.
